Offers for products or services to consumers must generally compete with offers from competitors. For example, employees with high-demand skills may have choices between employment offers from a wide variety of competing, potential employers. Moreover, the Internet, social media and other networked resources have revolutionized the way people learn about and apply for jobs with employers. Information about an employer is easy to ascertain via a candidate's web browser, without requiring an on-sight visit or in-person review with an employer or representative. This additional consumer information is outside the control of the competing employers presenting employment offers to the same candidate, and therefore hard to account for in the effective marketing of offers to candidates (consumers).
Demands and forums for reaching consumers continue to evolve and shift. In the example of candidate employment, talent acquisition tasks overlap with marketing efforts. In one survey slightly more than six in ten executives (62 percent) report that they rely on social networking tools for sourcing and advertising positions. Employers often intentionally or unintentionally leverage their presence on media and social networking sites to build a compelling employment brand that is useful in marketing their companies to passive job candidates (those not actively seeking employment with the employer).